This is truly "beyond belief"

Remember? A few days ago I wrote about the "Pendlerpauschale"  (Commuter subsidy) which is being paid to any one who drives or takes public transportation from his/her home to work and back again.  (Certain conditions apply)

What I will tell you now, I promise I did not make it up just to entertain you. This is really true:

In Austria, there are about 540,000 such Pendlers (commuters) daily going back and forth from home to work, using the Railroads.
If the train, any train, not only the trains of the ÖBB ( Austrian National Railroad) is late 10% of the time, or more often,  within a given year, then a holder of an annual commuter ticket can expect a partial refund of the price of his ticket. All a Pendler has to do is to register once and his refund ticket will automatically be mailed to him/her.

There is now an 'improvement' planned whereby such refunds are issued if the train is late only 5% of the time.

In 2011, a total of  10,353 long distance Pendlers were paid 385,000 Euros, and 1,368  regional Pendlers together, received 29,200 Euros. All because the train was late.
I have yet to determine the interpretation of "late".
When is a train late? Five minutes after the time table? 10 minutes? Half an hour? I'll find out and don't be surprised if it is the shortest of the above suggestions.

There is another interesting item which I did not mention in my last posting about the "Pendlerpauschale".  and that is, that it is being paid even while the commuter is on vacation and does not need to drive back and forth, or if he is home sick and for this very good reason does not drive to work. No matter... he/she still gets  this "Pauschale" ( a fixed payment ).

So imagine this: This Austrian man enjoys the sun on the Italian Riviera, the waiter serves him a Gin and Tonic and a letter from the ÖBB with the refund cheque, because their trains ran late 18 days within the year... and another cheque in the amount of his Pendler Subsidy.
He goes home after his vacation and gets sick right away, because he got too much sun or drank too many Gin&Tonics.
Guess what! The cheques for the 'Pendler Subsidy' keep right on coming.

The ÖBB (Österreichische Bundes Bahn) the Austrian Federal Railway, runs an annual deficit, large enough to choke the proverbial horse. So, piddly amounts like the ones listed above make probably no difference to the overall disastrous manner in which this nationalized service is being run.

Hey, what's this I hear, coming down the tracks ?
Must be the train... late again... Next time I go to Klagenfurt (50km) I'll simply take my private jet.
It's always on time.

Bertstravels